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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973535">The Early Days of a Better Nation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alishatheninth/pseuds/Alishatheninth'>Alishatheninth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternative Perspective, Canon Compliant, Dubcon thoughts, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Freedom Fighters, Gen, Moral Ambiguity, Plot, Smut, Villains</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:00:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,100</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alishatheninth/pseuds/Alishatheninth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Events preceding season 1 of Legend of Korra, from a mainly but not exclusively Equalist point of view. Amon and the Equalists recruit Hiroshi and work with him, and Amon's first victim in Republic City seeks recovery and revenge. Two original female characters, one of whom is slightly obsessed with commercialising the payphone. Evil!Asami Sato makes an appearance.</p><p>Rough sex and power play, also the logistics of running a business or a revolution in a period of rapid technological and social change.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amon / Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. An awkward conversation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My headcanon is that most of Amon's chi-blockers are female, because I totally would.</p><p>I am stuck on thinking how different the audience reaction to the Equalists would be if we were given a single sympathetic Equalist character, or just one who wasn't actively trying to hurt the protagonists of TLOK for a few lines of dialogue. So here goes: sympathetic, and somewhat kinky, terrorists. </p><p>I haven't written fiction for years, but really enjoyed doing this. All comments welcome.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Are you... sure this is the right place?" Hiroshi asked nervously. It occurred to him that kidnapping wealthy industrialists might be a growth industry.<br/>
"Quite sure" said the slight figure on his left. "Um, Soyi - you've been here before, right?"<br/>
"Yes, we scoped it out last night" said Soyi, the taller of the two women, and gestured at the basement entrance. A candle was visible within. "Just go in and talk to him, sir"<br/>
Hiroshi stumbled down the stairs in the candlelight. The room was large, and the candle sat on a table with a chair near the entrance. He sat down, and the candle went out.<br/>
A cold, deep voice spoke with soft menace from the darkness. "Good evening. I think we have concerns in common to discuss".</p>
<p>***A week earlier***<br/>
<br/>
The satomobile factory was nearly silent, except for the night workers on the float glass line at the end furthest from the office. Hiroshi paid good overtime rates, but right now demand was about keeping up with normal-schedule production, and he liked to send everyone home on time. He rubbed his eyes and felt the normal wave of sadness wash over him for no reason, tears starting.</p>
<p>He should go home. Asami would be having dinner with her governesses, a married couple who had lived in the city all their lives. She would run to him and hug him, and her face like her mother's would make his grief bubble upwards. He could read her a bedtime story, if he left now, if he could do so without breaking down. At eight years old, Asami understood her mother was dead, but she didn't understand why seeing her made her father cry. He turned back to the monthly data on steel wastage at the two factories.</p>
<p>There was a gentle knock at the door. Hiroshi hastily wiped his eyes on his sleeve and said "Come in".<br/>
One of his line managers stood in the door. "Good evening, sir".<br/>
"How can I help you... Misa?" he asked after a moment, relieved he'd remembered her name.<br/>
She looked momentarily tense. "Sir, I come from a small village near Ba Sing Se. I left because a group of earthbender boys were.... behaving badly around the village".<br/>
He wondered where this was going. Oh, spirits, this wasn't going to be an attempt to get close to him and eventually become his next wife, was it. Misa was a bit too young, but he <i>was</i> very rich. The idea horrified him.<br/>
"Anyway, sir, I noticed.... why don't you hire any benders in your factory?"<br/>
Ah, an easy one with a well-practiced answer. "Do we not hire any benders at the moment?" he asked casually. "Well, we don't get many bender applications. All the manufacturing processes are designed to be run without needing bending, and most skilled artisan benders prefer to work on more bespoke items. And of course there's lots of work in the city which does require bending, so most people with those skills go towards those jobs." He paused for a moment in his smooth spiel. "We do of course hire benders in security".<br/>
"I've noticed, sir, that of late you have been hiring fewer benders in security and more of the trained martial artists, sir. Chi-blockers. My friend from the village did a course in that - "<br/>
"I can't hire purely on personal recommendation" he said hastily. "If your friend goes through the standard channels for hiring and testing -"<br/>
"Oh you hired her last month, sir. She's enjoying the job." Misa paused.<br/>
Hiroshi let the silence grow. Really, what could she want?<br/>
"I'm sorry about your wife, sir. Really sorry." It came out in a rush.<br/>
"Thank you, Misa". He looked down at the papers.<br/>
"Someone should do something about the benders, sir. They ran our village and everyone was terrified of them, and they did what they liked, especially to girls". Misa squared her shoulders fiercely. "But we got away to Republic City where things are mostly better".<br/>
Hiroshi remembered being a powerless, moneyless child and the way the unprincipled strong always pick on the weak, and the principled strong did not even notice. He sighed. "Nobody can do anything, Misa. My wife is dead. You're safe from those boys here. We have to let it go."<br/>
"But here, the benders still run the triads, sir. They run the city council. They run the police. Do you think the police did all they could to investigate your wife's death? Would they have done more for a bender victim?" She paused. "What if there was someone who could do something - someone special?"<br/>
"Nobody can do anything."<br/>
"What if we could prove it" asked Misa eagerly. "Pick an enemy. Someone - a bender - you would like to see humbled. Not dead, just humbled. We're not ready for scale yet, but we can do that." Hiroshi stayed mute. In this city of benders, you had to keep your thoughts on the inside.<br/>
"What about Madam Taneka? If something happened to her in the next week, and she stopped being so high-and-mighty to you at the business leader's award ceremony and on the school board, then would you meet the person I'm talking about?"<br/>
Hiroshi nodded. Madam Taneka - firebending telephone entrepreneur, mother of two precocious firebending sons about Asami's age, campaigner for the school to have a pro bending training arena instead of a swimming pool, and general dismisser of nonbender opinions - was someone he was willing to admit to disliking.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Yumi Taneka woke up with a start. The curtains were blowing into the room, away from the open window. The window had been closed when she went to bed.<br/>
Yumi was not afraid. She did not hire security for her wing of the house, because why would a firebending master need it. "Who's there?" she asked calmly. "Explain yourself, or I will burn you to ashes, and never mind how expensive the furniture was".<br/>
She stood up, and sent a swoosh of fire to the corner to light the room. There was a man standing in the corner, tall and broad-chested, a scarf across his face. He seemed to be simply watching her.<br/>
Well. She did have a lovely collection of nightwear, and wasn't entirely averse to having it admired, even if she then torched the admirer. She swooshed some more fire and heaved her chest.<br/>
He came forward, and somehow her flame-wielding hands would not move. "You are used to power" he said, in a baritone which would have been pleasant if it had not been so cold. "Power of wealth, intelligence and beauty you can keep. Your power to destroy with a gesture ends today, and you will never understand why." She struggled to bring her hands to point at him, but he moved like a cat-snake, suddenly behind her, his hands rough on her neck. One hand steadied her, the other was rough on her forehead. There was a sudden, intimate pain and she slumped onto the bed.<br/>
The next morning, she found her sons had also lost their bending, and she did not stop screaming for hours.<br/>
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>"What did you do to Madam Taneka?" Hiroshi asked the figure in the darkness. "Neither she nor her sons have been seen this week, and dozens of healers have been at her house. Rumour has it she's gone mad."<br/>
"Something I'm not ready to have widely known yet" said the figure. "One day, you and I together can show the city's benders the meaning of fear, the meaning of being helpless and... pure. If we work together".<br/>
Hiroshi felt a large, surprisingly warm hand grip his arm. "What do you need?"<br/>
"Money. Weapons. Communication and recruitment channels, and spaces to train the chi-blockers in."<br/>
He nodded slowly, with the sense that the other could tell even in the darkness. "One rule, though. My daughter must never be involved. She must never even learn about it. We have to make the world fairer for her without her knowing.”<br/>
"To make the world fairer, yes. I am Amon. Welcome to my revolution".</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Failure to Communicate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A victim learns what Republic City law looks like to the weak. Amon and Hiroshi find it's hard to stay in touch. The chi-blockers have a great night out and give people ideas. Smut.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The plot's starting to come together. Also, having sex with your cult leader is a very bad idea, unless they're extremely good at it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yumi Taneka stood in front of Lin Beifong and held up her head defiantly. "I tell you a man did this to me" she said. "I could firebend, so could my sons. He was in my room, he touched me. After that night a month ago, we can't bend any more".<br/>
<br/>
Lin looked tired. "But that's impossible. I'm really sorry" - a lie; Lin was never sorry and clearly resented Yumi pushing past the front desk to Lin's Chief of Police office - "but we can't investigate an impossible crime. Could you all have had food poisoning, perhaps?"<br/>
<br/>
"Since when does food poisoning cause this?" Yumi exploded. "Do your job! There's a madman running about with his face hidden, and he can... do things to benders." Remembering the horror of that night, the violation, she felt his hands gripping her through the sheer nightgown again. Weirdly, she found herself wondering if she could have stopped him somehow. Offered him herself. He'd said she had beauty. It was a disturbing thought but maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. Then again, he'd seemed pretty focused on doing whatever he'd done to her.<br/>
<br/>
"Avatar Aang" she said soberly. "Avatar Aang could take people's bending away, and did. It's not impossible."<br/>
<br/>
"He's also seven years dead, and wouldn't have broken into a woman's room to touch her" said Lin crossly. "The new Avatar is seven years old and unlikely to be taking anyone's bending. We have your report on file. Go home. Get some sleep. Eat some food. Maybe it'll pass."<br/>
<br/>
Yumi clenched and reclenched her fists with the urge to set the room on fire. She was not used to this. The rich people of Republic City very seldom actually resorted to bending to solve disputes, but the threat was usually there in the background, and she realised it did affect how they treated one another. She simply wasn't an important person to Lin and the police any more, as a nonbender. They probably didn't even realise it, and were proud of how they weren't treating her as special just because she was a rich woman having a mental breakdown that had apparently spread to her family.<br/>
<br/>
She stood up and punched Lin in the scarred, weary face as hard as she could. Lin staggered backwards, but tendrils of metal caught her and then came snaking for Yumi. Yumi leapt forward to punch her again, but the metal wrapped around her and Lin marched her without a word to the police cells.<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
"They're not pressing any charges" said Yumi's brother, standing behind the policeman unlocking her door. "But maybe it would be best if you rested for a while? There's an excellent clinic on Ember Island".<br/>
<br/>
"What about the boys?" Yumi asked quietly. The police cells were not particularly nice places, and she had been hitting the door, pathetically trying to firebend, until her knuckles were bloody. Her hair was tangled and she smelled.<br/>
<br/>
"Shunsuke's fine, you know. He quit pro bending practice and took up pai sho and astronomy club the same week. I'm not sure he ever wanted to be a bending master - "<br/>
<br/>
"Everyone with talent needs to develop it to the full! That's why we pay that school so much!" Yumi said by reflex.<br/>
<br/>
"He's quite good at pai sho too. Ren's a little angrier, but he shows some interest in other sports. The school's going to be getting a swimming pool soon -" He flinched at her glare; she had always argued that the swimming pool had no benefit to her Fire Nation sons and so was a poor use of resources - "and they can live with my family until you're better. It's you I am worried about."<br/>
<br/>
"I am FINE" snarled Yumi, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.<br/>
<br/>
"You're not fine. Oren" - her Chief Staffing Officer - "and I are worried. Actually, we were really thinking of a long stay in the Ember Island clinic. We can run things. It's okay".<br/><br/>
"Oren is a weasel-snake trying to take the business I built from an idea and a couple of talented engineers!"<br/>
<br/>
Her brother looked uncomfortable, because what she said was true. "But you haven't shown any interest in the company for a month. And you are a danger to yourself, perhaps to your boys. As a precaution, we have to put you in the clinic".<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
As it turned out, by both Republic City and Fire Nation law, they could. She stayed at the clinic for eight years. It was very serene, and she plotted revenge every single day.<br/>
<br/>
***Eight years later***<br/>
<br/>
Hiroshi needed to talk to Amon, ideally without any of the dramatics his partner in revolution favoured. He understood the need for symbolism to inspire loyalty and fear, but in the eight years they had worked together, he'd never seen the man's face. The mask with the red circle was new and at least meant Amon didn't stick to the shadows all the time. Also, telephones helped. Thank goodness for Taneka Communication Industries and their rapid commercialisation drive.<br/>
<br/>
He wandered down the factory to his security team. "Misa, do you have a current phone number for you-know-who?"<br/>
<br/>
His head of security giggled. "I have the one from last week, but you know how he moves around. Soyi might have it." Hiroshi quashed his long-held curiosity about Amon's sleeping arrangements and the number of young women who seemed to know more about them than he did.<br/>
<br/>
"If you get a chance, tell him or ask someone to tell him that we need to discuss the next phase and allocation of manufacturing resources. The designs are finished. Anyway I'll be out at Asami's school play tonight but he can call me after eleven."<br/>
<br/>
Misa grinned cheerfully and fondly. She and her siblings-in-revolution always did at every mention of Asami, though they were strictly forbidden to initiate contact with her. "Have fun sir! Everything else can totally wait!"<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
The play was "The Boy in the Iceberg". It was objectively a terrible play, but Asami as Yue was acceptable, and Ren Taneka as Sokka was actually pretty funny. Hiroshi clapped with unfeigned enthusiasm as the last curtain fell.<br/>
<br/>
They all moved out to a terrace, overlooking one of Republic City's many plazas, to socialise and wait for the actors to finish in the dressing room. Staff began to circulate with glasses of champagne and shots of baijiu. All the better to suck you into camaraderie so you would donate to the school and maintain the social dominance of the current, mainly bender, ruling class, Hiroshi thought cynically.<br/>
<br/>
He took a shot of baijiu. Soyi, his chi-blocking security officer, raised an eyebrow at him from the side of the terrace. He winked at her. Come on, he was allowed the occasional drink. He looked around and spotted her three colleagues, placed discreetly around the edge of the terrace, looking sharp in Future Industries outfits.<br/>
<br/>
He turned around from winking at Soyi and found himself face to face with Yumi Taneka. It had been eight years since he had, almost randomly, set Amon onto her as proof of the revolutionary's ability. <br/>
<br/>
His Business Communication coaching hadn't covered "social meetings with a rival whose life you destroyed and aren't sure if you feel guilty or not". <br/>
<br/>
She looked healthy. Hair longer than before, sleek dress, robust but athletic figure. He sucked in his stomach defensively. "Ren was really good there" he said honestly. "You must be proud of him". <br/>
<br/>
Yumi looked surprised and pleased. "Yes of course" she replied. "Asami was great too."<br/>
<br/>
"How are you doing? It's been a while" he said gingerly. Maybe it was all fine. Maybe whatever Amon had done to her had nothing to do with her disappearance.<br/>
<br/>
"I had some health issues and stayed on Ember Island until they were resolved" said Yumi coolly. If she admitted to being anything other than fine, she might end up back there in revenge-less comfort. "It's a beautiful place. The beaches!" Yumi hated beaches. "Anyway, I'm better, I'm back, and I'm going to be heading up our New Products Division. What do *you* want from your telephone?"<br/>
<br/>
"What more could a telephone do?" Hiroshi asked, surprised. "There's almost a thousand of them now across the city, how much bigger could the market be?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm thinking - one on every street corner" said Yumi, her eyes gleaming. "So people put money into them and can make calls. We'll put them in glass boxes and they will be dry to stand in when it rains. That way everyone can use them!"<br/>
<br/>
"Will people really pay for that?" wondered Hiroshi. "Apart from business people like us, who needs to talk at a distance?"<br/>
<br/>
"Many people today use the post system, sometimes even within the city" said Yumi. "It saves time finding people when you have a non-urgent message. And I'm not just thinking Republic City; lots of people have family far away and don't see them often. If we can get telephone boxes everywhere, people will put money into them."<br/>
<br/>
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of ripping earth in the plaza below. The parents all rushed to the parapet to see what was going on. Two earthbenders - probably Triad - were throwing up walls against a firebender, probably also Triad, who was attacking with zest and lightning. Flying rocks brushed the firebender's hair and flew on to hit the building facades behind. The scorch marks washed halfway up the front of the school building, on whose roof terrace they were assembled. The few other people still in the plaza hurried on their way, running from the walls and the shaking rock.<br/>
<br/>
"That'd take down your telephone boxes" remarked Hiroshi. <br/>
<br/>
"Yes, and the road repair crews never really get the foundations of the buildings properly fixed afterward" said Yumi absently. "Republic City buildings won't last a hundred years."<br/>
<br/>
Hiroshi's gaze fell on Soyi. She and her two chi-blocker colleagues were looking at him with a clear appeal for permission. The baijiu made him a little reckless, and he nodded; without a pause, Soyi threw a loop of rope over one of the parapet verticals and they all slid down it to the plaza floor.<br/>
<br/>
The earthbenders and the firebender were intent on their battle, and the chi-blockers moved incredibly fast, their unshowy dark outfits making them difficult to follow. Two reached the earthbenders, and with a series of ruthless, precise chops to the back of arms and legs, caused them to drop onto the rumpled stone of the plaza. The firebender was a little further away and quicker, and turned to face Soyi as she came from his side, sending a stream of flame at her that she barely dodged. Then she leapt up into an impressive backflip away from him, out of range, and when he paused to take stock, the other two hit him simultaneously from behind. The plaza was silent, the three crumpled benders and Hiroshi's security team still for a moment. Then Soyi and her colleagues returned to the school building with a few celebratory backflips, climbing the rope back onto the terrace, and bowing to the crowd of parents with proud grins. The police, called by someone in the buildings around, arrived several minutes later to arrest the triad members.<br/>
<br/>
"That's amazing" said Yumi. "You weren't using bending, were you? What is it you call that?"<br/>
<br/>
The security team explained that chi-blocking was an ancient art of Kyoshi warriors, also taught at various martial art schools around the city. Asami came out from backstage and hugged Hiroshi, and at length the five of them piled into a satomobile and headed home.<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
Across the city, Misa heard a firm knock at the door, and ran to open it. “Dear Leader!” she purred. “You made it!"<br/>
<br/>
“Good evening” said Amon, walking through the offered door. The slight sneer of the mask seemed to her, for a moment, to be a little lewd. “Am I disturbing you?"<br/>
<br/>
Misa put a hand out gently to stroke the broad chest under his uniform. “I expect you’re about to”.<br/>
<br/>
“Very well”. He pulled a blindfold from his pocket. “Turn around”. She wondered how he always managed to time this perfectly. She didn’t fool herself that she was the only one subject to his ministrations, and he was always giving the orders, but he invariably did so when she was in the mood for it, didn’t need the toilet, and didn’t feel she should have a shower first. She let him tie the blindfold over her eyes, and heard the mask click down onto her bedside table.  His hands moved brisky down her jacket, undoing the buttons and taking it off. They moved warmly over her thin top as if testing, cupped her breasts lightly but lingered on a sore spot behind her shoulder blade.<br/>
<br/>
“Take your clothes off and lie on your front on the bed” he said in a low voice. She could hear him undressing too, as she obeyed.<br/>
<br/>
His hands were callused and warm on the soft skin of her back. They scratched a little dry skin behind her ear, then moved on to the tension in her neck, rubbing it hard enough to approach the threshold for pain, but with such precision that it felt good instead. His hands moved down to her clavicles and down to the knot in her shoulder she hadn’t noticed she had, some small injury from training. His thumb and fingers worked the muscle deep, and she whimpered slightly with delight.<br/>
<br/>
“How do you do that?” she asked. “It’s not just a chi-blocker thing. We've tried. Well, if it is, you need to give them lessons in that.”<br/>
<br/>
He continued until the sensation had begun to dull, and then his hands roved over her back again, gently scratching where the skin wanted it, kneading where the muscles did. She shut her eyes and floated on the sensation.<br/>
<br/>
When her back was judged to have sufficient attention (how did he know exactly when to stop?) he stretched out beside her and turned her to one side, his body tight to hers from behind. She could feel his erection against her bottom, and moaned softly. His hands caressed her breasts much more gently than they’d touched her back, and his lips pressed against her ear as one of them moved downwards to stroke her clitoris. She moaned wordlessly, already close to the edge, and broke down under his caress in a series of small yelps. He did not say a word, but she could feel his lips smiling where they were held against her face. He waited for her orgasm to die away. “Now, bend over for me”.<br/>
<br/>
“Condoms in the side table” she reminded, taking a position on hands and knees for him. There was a crackle of condom wrappers, and he pushed himself in one smooth movement into her wet depths. Amon was always efficient, his thrusts hard and deliberate, but when her body began to respond again he moved a finger down and touched her until she shuddered and spasmed again with pleasure. He finished with a low grunt and was still for a long moment, then got up to tidy up.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh – Hiroshi needs to talk to you. About – the next phase, and allocation of manufacturing resources. He said give him a phone call..."<br/>
<br/>
Amon went to the window and opened the curtain slightly to check the clock out on Avatar Aang Island. “It’s fourteen minutes past midnight. In your assessment of Hiroshi’s usual sleep schedule, do you think he’ll still be awake?"<br/>
<br/>
Misa didn’t have a phone in her apartment, and she was exceedingly comfortable and rather hoping for another round of sex in the morning. “No” she lied sleepily.<br/>
<br/>
Amon sighed with disappointment, as if he could tell she was lying. “I’ll go back to headquarters and phone him” he said, put the mask on, got dressed, and vanished into the night. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Management Problems</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Equalists consider their manufacturing strategy. Yumi finds an evening class she enjoys, and has no idea that she is in danger. We get some of Amon's perspective, and it's mostly focused on laundry and personnel issues. Rough but consensual sex.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've always wondered why Asami had no friends her own age at the start of TLOK. The best I can do is that it takes her another two years to learn social confidence, and also she spends a lot of her time designing machines to hurt people with.</p>
<p>Amon's obviously a details person, right?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hiroshi, Asami and their security detail burst into the mansion at past midnight. Hiroshi was a little drunk, and Asami was giggling with the excitement of the play. Soyi and the security team faded into the perimeter.</p>
<p>"Cup of tea?" Hiroshi headed for the kitchen. </p>
<p>While they brewed up a pot of jasmine tea, Asami finally opened up to him a little about her social life. He'd noticed she had few real friends her own age. He hadn't realised she felt awkward about it. Not unhappy, necessarily, but awkward. He'd always had difficulty making close friends, as well, until he got married and then he'd had his wife, until he didn't.</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>"There there" he said, carefully. "There are bound to be people you want to be friends with -"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Do you think so Papa? People like Guarav the Great and the Tigerdilloes?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Er - yes, probably" said Hiroshi. She took herself to her bedroom and its large collection of autographed pro-bending posters shortly after that.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He headed by habit into his office, and jumped as someone put a hand on his shoulder. "Good evening" said Amon.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Hiroshi spluttered. "What are you doing here?" He wanted to say, BOUNDARIES. But that sounded like the kind of thing Asami would say at the moment. He didn't like to think about Amon and Asami in the same minute. Definitely didn't like the idea of them being in the same house.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I checked the school, heard about the fight, couldn't see you. Then I came here to make sure you and your daughter and Soyi, Xiaoyu and Kara were safe" said Amon.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Thanks" said Hiroshi. "We're fine, she's fine. Just out a bit later than expected, sorry, and forgot the time". Despite Amon's many concealments and idiosyncrasies as a leader, there was little doubt he did care about his people. </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The mask stared at him calmly. "You needed to talk?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Oh yes. Good news - we're about to go into production of some of the weapon designs at the beta skunkworks site."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"The electric stunning umbrellas?" </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Ah, no, those didn't work out in the design phase". This was a lie. What had happened was that Asami had found the sketches and asked about them. Hiroshi had said they were ideas for a potential client but he wasn't going to bid for the contract because he couldn't make the power supply compact enough. Asami had stayed up all night solving the engineering problem. He'd had to tell her the potential client had changed their mind; he didn't want Asami to see her handiwork in action on her own fellows during the revolution. He'd used elements of her design in the new model, though. "We're going to go for electric stunning gloves instead".</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Electric gloves? Are they not going to be a bit obvious when people carry them around?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Well, umbrellas are obvious if it's not raining" said Hiroshi sheepishly. "Anyway, we have prototypes of airships, fighting robots, mines, and heavier-than-air flying machines. And the gloves, which should be effective against the metalbending police in their armour. The question is what ratio we should manufacture in. The gloves are for close, nonlethal combat. The others... if we have to use them, people will be killed."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"We'll need more gloves than anything else" said Amon. "Unless the United Fleet gets involved, we should be able to show that we rule the air without firing a shot. How much backup can we fit onto the secret airbase?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>They discussed logistics late into the night, like two business partners or friends.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div><p>Punch, twist, roll. Punch, twist, roll, LEAP.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div><p>Not bad for a 40-year-old after two pregnancies, thought Yumi smugly as the dummy rotated under her blows. Chi-blocking wasn't so unlike firebending - well, they both involved moving, anyway. There was a lot more wrist pain in chi-blocking because you had to make actual contact. Yumi missed firebending like an amputated limb, even after eight years. But you could learn to live and function without a limb, especially a limb most people never even had.</p></div><div><p>The training area was a basement in Dragon Flats. The evening was warm, but the basement had a slight smell of damp and mold. Forty or more men and women were intently following the lead of Instructor Kiran through the movements.</p></div><div><p>Yumi had tried several chi-blocking teachers. The art was indeed quite widely taught in all social classes of the city. The course in her own social class had required Kyoshi Warrior outfits after the second lesson, and Yumi felt too old and weary to cosplay. She'd tried a more middlebrow course, but again, it had seemed too focused on style. Yumi wasn't very interested in style, but she did want to learn to beat the crap out of benders.</p></div><div><p>She wanted to find the man with the deep voice and the covered face, too, and then she would burn him alive. But after that she'd still have to live in a world of benders who didn't think she was inferior to them, because they never thought of her at all. Best to learn to fight benders and look for the man.</p></div><div><p>This training course was the only one she'd been back to three times. Clearly aimed at people with a good deal less money than her, who wanted to get competent quickly. She liked it.<br/>
<br/>
Someone opened a side door to the hall, looked at her for a moment, and then shut it before Yumi saw their face clearly.</p></div><div><p>***<br/>
<br/>
</p></div><div><p>"Boss" said Xiaoyu to Soyi from the phone at the Equalist headquarters. "That rich woman from Asami's school bash is coming to our entry-level chi-blocking classes."</p></div><div><p>"Yumi Taneka? Coming to our chi-blocking classes?" said Soyi from Hiroshi's mansion phone. "Monkey feathers. Thanks for letting me know.  Have they got to the point where you say it might not be <em>just</em> a martial art?"</p></div><div><p>The Equalist chi-blocking recruitment drive didn't start with "would you like to bring down the city government".  The first level course was politically neutral. Then the Equalist agents in the classes would get talking to new recruits, assess their sentiments about the situation in Republic City and the bender dominance of politics. Those who had an interest in such matters would be invited to different, more advanced classes; those who proved distressingly unrevolutionary would eventually be discouraged from continuing. At some point, Amon would speak to them and gauge their reaction, before they knew anything too incriminating.</p></div><div><p>The recruitment was not aimed at rich people. Rich people were benders or had a lot of bender friends.</p></div><div><p>"No" said Xiaoyu, who worked with Soyi and had looked into the class while searching for a lost armband. "She shouldn't have seen anything beyond what new recruits see. Yet."</p></div><div><p>"Thanks. Now stay out of her way" - the last thing the Equalists needed was people connecting Hiroshi's chi-blocker security team with the nascent revolutionary movement - "and I'll ask the Leader about it". Soyi bid farewell politely and hung up.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p></div><div><p>***<br/>
<br/>
</p></div><div><p>The Equalists did not go for a hierarchical structure. It was in the name, really. However they did have an unofficial Group of People who Make Decisions, and they were all in the room.</p></div><div><p>Amon looked around at his core leadership group. He tried to see them as people, but his bloodbending saw them as networks of veins, arteries, and glands to be manipulated. He was both thrilled by the power and repulsed. This wasn't the way his father had felt about people - was it? People should be treated the same, whatever their special abilities or lack of them.</p></div><div><p>Soyi was there. Her heartbeat was steady and unafraid. She didn't fancy him - didn't have sexual interest in anyone, as far as he'd observed - but she was loyal, committed to the cause, and trusted the decisions made here. </p></div><div><p>Hiroshi was there. Hiroshi had questions about a lot of things, and resented Amon's secrets. But he also responded with faster heart and keener senses to anti-bender rhetoric. Amon could trust him. Hiroshi also had a weird unacknowledged attraction to the Lieutenant but both would be horrified if they found out.</p></div><div><p>The Lieutenant, Liu, was there. He loved Amon, with or without sex, and was utterly loyal. It was a bit awkward, since Amon did generally prefer sex with women, but he sorted Liu out when he could.</p></div><div><p>Misa was there. Amon saw Misa as a fabulous tracery of blood vessels, heating and cooling in patterns often determined by her libido. He really did find nearly all women beautiful, especially if they responded to him with interest. Misa was loyal to the cause - her heart rate rose when she heard a stirring Equalist speech or news of bender oppression - but there was an extra knot of blood in her clitoris right now, just because he was in the room. He'd definitely have to deal with that later. And stop thinking about it for now, because these trousers were not usually this tight.</p></div><div><p>"So the rich bender bitch Yumi Taneka is onto us" said Liu.</p></div><div><p>"Looks like it" agreed Hiroshi. "But I'm not sure how much support she has from the authorities. She's been in medical facilities for eight years, until quite recently. She might be acting completely alone."</p></div><div><p>"A coincidence that we can't rely on" said Soyi. "But what can she know? How could she figure out it was us?"</p></div><div><p>They all looked at Amon. "If she sees me and hears my voice, she's likely to realise it was me who... hurt her" he said. "She may know more about us already".</p></div><div><p>They all looked at him, and he did not need any special abilities to tell that they wondered what exactly he had done to Yumi Taneka. Misa was vaguely aroused by the idea, strangely. He wasn't ready to tell them yet; it hit too close to another secret that would blow the anti-bending movement apart. He'd have to reveal his abilities, take the city and stabilise it before any of his ardently anti-bender followers thought too much about the actual mechanics of removing bending. </p></div><div><p>"I could kill her" offered the Lieutenant. "I'd make it quick." Soyi, Misa and Hiroshi looked horrified, and he shrugged. "We're building machines that could kill thousands of people, and planning to use them if we have to" he pointed out. </p></div><div><p>Amon considered it. It would solve the problem. It would not be fair, though; Yumi Taneka, guilty of nothing but being thoughtless and privileged and a bit of a bitch, had already suffered more than anyone else for the revolution.</p></div><div><p>"Don't kill her yet" he ordered. "Ask some of the chi-blockers who aren't publically linked with Hiroshi to make friendly contact with her. Maybe she's really just here for combat training, or she has suspicions but no proof. Try camaraderie and alcohol before murder."</p></div><div><p>"I'll help" said Misa cheerfully. "I've always wanted to learn chi-blocking, and I'll just use a fake name. Nobody knows Hiroshi's line managers outside the factory anyway. I'll get some help. Boss, just stay out of the way until we've got her talking."</p></div><div><p>Amon shot her a masked look of gratitude and promise. All her erogenous zones thumped gently with the beating of her loyal heart. She was so lovely.</p></div><div><p><br/>
Later, he caught up with her in one of the Equalist emergency dormitories, which were used as much for sex as for sleep, revolutionaries having needs of both types. It was custom for anyone coming in to knock, though barricading the door was also good practice if you needed privacy. They had a laundry rota for these dormitories, which Amon was part of, equality being non-negotiable in the movement. Washing clothes without obvious waterbending was really difficult, though he did quietly make sure they came out cleaner and dried faster on his shift than when the others did the work. "Could Hiroshi design a laundry machine?" he asked Misa, seeing a stain on one of the beds. "Something that nonbenders could use to make washing clothes and sheets less backbreaking".</p></div><div><p>"Is that actually what you wanted to say to me?" she asked playfully, turning to the door to jam a chair under the handle.</p>
<p>He pushed her against the wall and gripped her chin with one hand, putting the other on her forehead and almost imperceptibly opening the chi pathways to the parts of her body that gave her pleasure. She moaned. Something was bothering her, though. He could feel it in the way her muscles tensed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div><p>"What are you thinking?" he asked directly. Complications in their relationship were unwelcome, but it was best to deal with them as they came up.</p></div><div><p>"What <em>did</em> you do to Yumi Taneka?"</p></div><div><p>It was a serious question, but she was also eager to be reassured and a little playful, and would be easy enough to distract. "I can show you" he said, teasing. "Get on your knees".</p></div><div><p>She was uncertain for a moment, but the order in his voice still aroused her. He took a pillow from the bed and put it on the hard floor for her knees. "Down" he commanded, and undid his trousers. It was rather sweet, how mixed up genuine concern and a desire to be mishandled seemed to be in her. "Open your mouth and take me."</p></div><div><p>She did, sliding her tongue up and down his cock and engulfing him. Her mouth was too small and he winced at the teeth in it, setting his hands on each side of her head and using a tiny bit of force to keep her jaws open. She gagged, shame and excitement singing in her veins, and with no great force he backhanded her across the cheek, so she slid down onto the floor.</p></div><div><p>He was on her, his weight pinning her on the hard floor and one hand on her forehead, checking she was still feeling this as arousal rather than pain or fear. Like other uses of his power, he was careful with this as long as he was fully in control of the situation. It was much more difficult to use this level of fine control in a fight.</p></div><div><p>She wriggled with mock resistance, and he crushed the mask against her face in a savage kiss before letting her sit up, dazed. "This is not at all what I did to Yumi Taneka" he told her. "But I could have. Take off your clothes".</p></div><div><p>He stood up and turned off the lights. He couldn't see her face, but he could feel exactly where the blood was flowing hottest in her. He stripped quickly and removed the mask. "Maybe she would have liked this too" he whispered in her ear, and forced her face up for a long, rough kiss. </p></div><div><p>Misa was aching for release, so he pushed her down on her back on the bed, took a moment to put a condom on, and slid inside her. She whimpered and clung to him, pleasure building almost immediately, and he rolled his hips helpfully until she shuddered, again and again, and finally she was done and he could come himself.</p></div><div><p>Pulling out, he stroked her hair gently and gave her a minute for her heart to stop beating wildly. "Anyway that really wasn't what I did to Yumi" he said. "It was just what I felt like doing to you."</p></div><div><p>He got dressed and masked in the dark, and she dressed, before they turned the light on. "Good luck at your chi-blocking class" he wished her, as they crept out into the corridor and turned in opposite directions.</p></div></div></div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Alcohol and Cameraderie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Misa finds deception in the service of the revolution to be more difficult than she had expected. Councilman Tarrlok and the need for international measurement standards are discussed. Yumi thinks she's making friends, but knowledge of industrial processes introduces doubt.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am trying really hard to keep the number of OCs down here, but as soon as Haru became required as Misa's wingman, I had to give him a backstory and a cautious personality. How do proper authors ever get anything finished?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Owww! said the woman in her chi-blocking practice trio as Yumi jabbed her spine and arms. "That was, um, very good"<br/>
<br/>
"Thanks!" Yumi said, and turned her back to the third member to let him try to hit her arm chi points. It felt like being attacked by a weak stick insect. "I think you might want to hit harder and a bit higher up? They say it needs to be a sharp punch". The two took it in turns to poke Yumi in the back until the instructor moved them into some warm-down exercises and ended the class.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm Haru" said the man.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm Mis- Leila" said the woman. "We're going for noodles, want to come?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm Yumi, and I'd love to but I'm far too sweaty, thanks" said Yumi. She really was. Normally after chi-blocking class she just walked home across the city to a shower, cooling off and enjoying the night. It was a shame, because her social calendar had been quite empty since her return to Republic City and she didn't see that changing any time soon.<br/>
<br/>
"There are showers under the hall" explained Leila. "You can always borrow some clothes! I brought some for you!"<br/>
<br/>
Well, that was a bit odd but very friendly. "Can I bring some spare clothes and join you next time instead? Thursday, right?" Yumi waved goodbye and headed off into the night.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
"She's onto us!" Misa wailed.<br/>
<br/>
"Who brings spare clothes for someone they've never met?" Haru, a friend from the factory, pointed out. "She was behaving exactly like a normal person. You were not. Also she's good at chi-blocking and we're terrible."<br/>
<br/>
"I haven't done this before, either the chi-blocking or the gaining-people's-trust. Is she going to the police station? Shall we follow her?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm not sure stalking her will make you look less suspicious. She gave her real name, which suggests she may actually just be here for the exercise. Let's just show up on Thursday again."<br/>
<br/>
Their target wasn't in class on Thursday and Misa was half in a panic the whole lesson, thinking she'd missed the one chance. However, to their surprise, a sleek and non-sweaty Yumi arrived after the class. "Is the noodle offer still on?" She asked. "Sorry, I had to work late unexpectedly and missed the class."<br/>
<br/>
She waited as they vanished into the bowels of the building and came out damp and cleanly dressed. They went round the corner and ordered beer and noodles in a dimly lit restaurant. Misa prevented herself commenting on how it didn't seem like the sort of place Yumi was used to; the rich woman was dressed down, in dark, nondescript clothing that was nonetheless of exquisite cut and cloth.<br/>
<br/>
They chatted a little about their lives. "I'm from a village near Zaofu" said Haru. "My family mined platinum there for hundreds of years, sold it for jewellry and then to the car industry as catalysts. Then the metalbenders of Zaofu come one day, pay us a flat fee to dig up everything with earthbending, set up a huge refining plant. Within a few years, there's nothing left in the ground, nothing for us but farming. I left my home for Republic City because factory wages still come in if it doesn't rain."<br/>
<br/>
"That's rough" said Yumi.<br/>
<br/>
"I have spent literally all day trying to recalibrate the flaming glass roller" said Misa. "I need something stronger than beer." They ordered a round of baijiu. "Turns out someone ordered a new machine from the Fire Nation and their millimetres aren't the same as ours. No wonder the five millimetre tempered glass sheets weren't fitting right."<br/>
<br/>
"Where did you say you worked, Leila?" Yumi asked politely.<br/>
<br/>
Haru kicked Misa under the table to remind her not to disclose her link to Hiroshi Sato. "Er, Cabbage Corp" she said. "We both do. Anyway why should *millimetres* be different between nations. It's as bad as Pai Sho rules. The flaming Avatar should fix *that* instead of -" Haru kicked her again.<br/>
<br/>
Yumi smiled. "I had a bad day too" she said. "I meant to work on a costing proposal for a big idea I've had, but I ended up preparing a sales pitch for Council Hall. I guess it's about time they got a telephone but they just refuse to see the need, and they said no." She gestured for more baijiu. "It feels like we're locked in the past and nobody in power believes technology - and accuracy - is important."<br/>
<br/>
"Flaming benders" said Misa. "They don't allow or prioritise stuff like consistent measurements or... telephones... because they think they can do everything important with bending anyway".<br/>
<br/>
"Damn straight" Yumi knocked back a glass of baijiu. <br/>
<br/>
"Where do you work, Yumi?" asked Haru, politely and a bit unsteadily.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm Yumi Taneka." She raised her head with pride. "I built Taneka Communications. I first saw the potential in the telephone. I took the company to its first hundred customers!" Then she stumbled. "And now my brother and flaming Oren run the company and give me a corner office, a salary and tasks like selling telephones to bureaucrats, and when I have a brilliant idea I have to go to them for flaming approval to spend money on developing it." <br/>
<br/>
"That's rough" said Misa. <br/>
<br/>
"You'd use a telephone on the corner right? One from which you can call any number for a few yuan?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well" said Haru. "Nobody I know has a telephone, so not sure who I'd call".<br/>
<br/>
Shortly afterwards, they were having an intense discussion about the hypothetical sexual attractiveness of public figures. <br/>
<br/>
"Lin Beifong. Yes/ no? I'm a yes" suggested Haru.<br/>
<br/>
"Yes" said Misa and Yumi together.<br/>
<br/>
"Tenzin?" from Yumi.<br/>
<br/>
"Ewwww" from both.<br/>
<br/>
"Councilman Tarrlok" said Haru.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, that doesn't count, I've had him" laughed Yumi, flushed with alcohol. "What? Everyone has. He's a total weasel snake but the sex was surprisingly great."<br/>
<br/>
"Is he the father of your sons?!" Misa asked, her eyes round with shock.<br/>
<br/>
"Spirits no. Those were a talented engineer on his way up, and a cute semiconductor physics specialist who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Councilman Tarrlok was just for fun."<br/>
<br/>
"Avatar Aang, thirty years ago." They generally agreed on a yes.<br/>
<br/>
"Hiroshi Sato". Generally a no, though Haru managed a "who?" instead.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
When the noodle bar closed, Misa and Haru insisted on staggering home with Yumi, then wove back together to the district near the Sato factory where they both lived.<br/>
<br/>
"She seems nice" hiccupped Haru. "For a rich lady".<br/>
<br/>
"Do you think she knows we're planning to bring down the tyrannical bender government though?" Misa wondered. "It's kind of important. Amon's going to kill her if she does."<br/>
<br/>
Haru stopped walking outside Misa's apartment. "Really kill her? I mean he's quite an intimidating guy, but..."<br/>
<br/>
"He doesn't want to" said Misa defensively. "But she knows something more than most potential recruits, something that could be dangerous... Anyway we have to keep meeting her and make sure she doesn't get recruited or do anything which would let her connect him with the Equalists."<br/>
<br/>
Haru looked at her. "You know all Amon's secrets, right? I get that he doesn't share them with everyone, I'm fine not being in the inner circle so I can't give anything away, but he tells you more?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes, of course" lied Misa. "Goodnight."<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
Yumi woke up with a thumping hangover and a general feeling that the previous night had been the best she had had in many years. Something was niggling the back of her mind, though. She showered, got dressed, and headed for the office, checking in briefly with a waterbending street healer for help with the headache. She reached the office and shut herself in with the costing proposals for telephone boxes.<br/>
<br/>
Several hours later, she reached '500 sheets of tempered rolled glass, two metres by one point one metre'. How much would that cost?  She looked through her contacts book, and called the number for Cabbage Corp sales. "Hi, Yumi Taneka here" she said. "Just looking for a price estimate for some rolled glass for delivery early next year, can I give you the specs and ask you to call me back?"<br/>
<br/>
"We only do float glass, ma'am. Fine for most applications, and a lot cheaper.  Only Future Industries does rolled glass in Republic City. What were the specs again?"<br/>
<br/>
While Yumi gave the sizes, she thought back to her new friend from the previous day and the story of the rollers. Hmmm. She was quite strongly drawn to Leila, but the woman wasn't telling her something.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Curiosity Killed The Cat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Yumi fails to respect her friend's privacy. Amon holds one of his first rallies.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I really enjoyed writing scary Amon and some action, and think I'm finished writing smut for this story.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yumi took a sip of the rather nasty green tea. She was sitting behind a condensation-blurred window in a cafe opposite the main entrance of Future Industries' main factory, just before evening shift change. She was wearing oil-stained, generic overalls and a bobble hat pulled low on her head.</p><p>Over the past few weeks, she'd had dinner with Leila and Haru several more times after class. They'd generally stuck to a few beers after the first evening, but conversations had been lively. Yumi hadn't thought much about the lives of factory workers before, and was somewhat surprised how much they had to say that interested her.</p><p>However, Leila stuck to her lie about working for Cabbage Corp, and even elaborated on it. Yumi had spent some hours watching the Cabbage Corp main entrance at shift change too, and had seen neither Leila or Haru, though some others from the chi-blocking class had gone past. She had also noticed they didn't come to class from the direction of the factory, though they did come from the direction they said they lived in.</p><p>It shouldn't matter. There were perfectly good reasons why skilled workers might not disclose their employer truthfully to a stranger or their employer's competitor. But Yumi found herself unable to let it go as a harmless lie to protect trade secrets. So, she was trying to satisfy her curiosity by finding out where Leila did work, and her friend had mentioned last night working the day shift. Future Industries made rolled glass.</p><p>A bell rang inside the factory, and after a minute the workers started streaming out of the gate. The cafe filled up with people who weren't going straight home, filling their tea canisters and buying steamed buns. Leila was one of the last out the gate, and had changed out of her Future Industries uniform into something dark and sportily tight-fitting. Without glancing at the cafe, she turned right and headed purposefully toward Dragon Flats.</p><p>Yumi hadn't actually meant to do more than confirm that part of Leila's story was true - it was easy enough to see why she might tell true workplace stories, but about a false employer. But Yumi was a curious woman, and so without exactly meaning to tail Leila, she left the cafe and headed in the same direction.</p><p>Leila glanced back several times, but Yumi knew her friend's eyes were not particularly sharp at a distance, and the disguise held. Leila chose smaller and quieter streets, heading into a cheap residential area that was almost deserted. Finally she ducked into a side alley, so small it was hard to imagine what might bring her there. Yumi paused for a moment, then followed.  Maybe she could say hi, give Leila a chance to admit to working for Hiroshi Sato, they'd laugh about it. OK, maybe Yumi would need to lie about why she was dressed as a factory worker straight off a messy shift.</p><p>The alley was a dead end. There was no Leila. Nothing but a grate like the ones into the sewers, knocked loose - probably by enthusiastic earthbending battles - and big enough to crawl into.</p><p>Yumi considered respecting her friend's privacy for about a second. Then, she shinnied into the grate and dropped down into a dimly lit corridor that was definitely not a sewer. There was a small ladder propped against the wall to help climb back up to the grate, and the sound of many voices, far away.</p><p>She walked quietly along the corridor in the opposite direction to the voices. She glimpsed Leila one corner ahead, moving away, and followed. The next corner, Yumi just peeked round, and hastily pulled her head back. Leila had been giving a tall, hooded man clothed in rough dun clothes an enthusiastic hug of greeting. Almost a cuddle. The corridor ended there, but there was a side door next to the couple, and the babble of voices came from there. Yumi thought: like a stage door.</p><p>She backtracked a few corridors, and came face to face with a moustacioed man wearing a mask over his eyes. He didn't appear surprised to see someone. "Sorry, I was finding a bathroom" she said with her finest patrician confidence. "I hope I haven't missed anything?" He directed her around a few more corners, and she found herself at the back of a large room, containing a crowd of perhaps 30 standing people. They were mostly dressed like people who had come off factory shifts, or finished running food stalls, or driving rickshaws or sato-taxis.They smelled slightly of sweat and smoke, and they were murmuring among themselves.</p><p>There was a makeshift stage at the front, of rough wood joined with visible nails. Yumi wondered if Leila's secret was a taste for standup comedy. An inanimate object much taller and broader than a human stood beside the stage, draped in a large cloth.</p><p>The side door opened, and the tall, hooded man walked out onto the stage. He turned his face to the audience, and it was a white mask with a red circle on the forehead, a slight twist to its lips which was more like a cruel sneer than a smile. Behind him came a smaller figure wearing dark clothes, a balaclava, and goggles glowing an eerie green. The way the second figure walked was Leila's way of walking.</p><p>"Good evening" said the masked man, in a smooth baritone that gave Yumi a terrible jolt of familiarity. "You are all here because you see the inequality of the current system, and want to change it. I am Amon, and I have a plan for change".</p><p>Yumi shrunk behind a taller member of the audience. The hidden face... the voice... it had been over eight years, but she was sure this was the man who had broken into her home and, somehow, taken her bending. Taken everything she had. Well, except for wealth and comfort and some other things.</p><p>"For too long, benders have taken their dominance for granted. Not just the physical advantage - that, though unfair, they cannot change - but they have shaped the very social structure of this city so that their voices are always heard loudest. When nonbenders are extorted by the Triads, where are the police? When was the last time a nonbender sat on Council? Perhaps they can do things with earth, water or fire that we cannot do - but they have no such innate ability to provide better governance than us."</p><p>Most of the crowd was nodding along with Amon, but one young man in the front row was skeptical. "The Avatar will be grown up in a few years" he called out. "She'll return the city to balance!"</p><p>The mask cocked to one side gently. "You rely on a young girl, raised in a compound to master all the bending elements, to come to us - of all the cities of the wide world - and solve our problems? This city was founded by the last Avatar and his friends. How is that going for nonbenders?"</p><p>Well, better than in most places, thought Yumi, remembering her history lessons. Avatar Aang had included nonbenders in every level of governance. However it was true that, particularly after his death, things had changed. One of the few areas where nonbenders could have influence was industry, hence Future Industries, Cabbage Corp and Varrick Industries. It was a strange thing to think when you were almost drowning in terror.</p><p>"I hope, of course, that when Avatar Korra comes to Republic City she will at once see the reality of our repression and respond thoughtfully to address the inequality here" continued Amon. "We will do nothing irreversible until she arrives and shows her character and abilities. However, we should be ready should she prove.... disappointing."</p><p>"What can we do, though?" asked an old woman in the front row. "They are always stronger than us physically, and they have most of the money as well."</p><p>"Most of the money, but not all" said Amon. "One part of the plan is - technology." He gestured, and the moustachioed man walked to the draped inanimate figure and pulled off the covering. The crowd gasped. "These... mechas... can amplify the strength of the people within so they can fight benders. And we have other weapons, that will be ready when the time is right. Plus, we have you; an army training in the ancient art of chi-blocking, which most benders are too arrogant to learn to counter effectively.  Those are the first components of my plan. So, my brothers and sisters -"</p><p>Gazing at Amon, Yumi hadn't even noticed the second figure leaving the stage and edging round the side of the crowd to get a closer look at her. She felt Leila's hand on her shoulder as a shock, and knew she was recognised. "It's her!" Leila cried, in a despairing tone.</p><p>Yumi spun and punched Leila as hard as she could in the goggles. The crowd spun towards them as Leila went down. Yumi ran for the door, and as she reached it she heard Amon say calmly, "Stand aside. I will handle this intrusion myself."</p><p>She ran the way she had come, hoping she remembered it right. Amon's footsteps were just thirty metres or so behind, and he was incredibly fast. She was relieved to see the ladder, but it took her a moment to scramble through the grate and he gained. She felt a strange pull on her leg and her muscles hesitated to obey her for a moment, even though he couldn't be near enough to touch her, and then his followers caught up with him and it slackened. She got out into the alley ahead of him and ran into a slightly larger street, which was also empty of people. Somehow, despite his larger frame, he also got out through the grate and was still thirty metres or so behind her.</p><p>Yumi was a good runner - it had been permitted physical therapy on Ember Island - and she was pretty sure he wouldn't want to follow her into a busy area. The mask would make him obvious, and people in large groups tended to ask questions when large men chased terrified women. So she headed for a major shopping thoroughfare. By the time she reached it, she thought she had lost him, and slowed down among the crowds of evening shoppers and restaurant-goers, panting.</p><p>Now, to get home, to get behind all the platinum locks and window-bars she'd had reinforced eight years ago and again when she'd returned to the city. When she was safe she'd call the police, once she'd decided how to make them believe her this time. She let her breathing steady, and looked for a sato-taxi or closed rickshaw.</p><p>The first few she gestured to did not stop. She realised that she did not look like someone who could pay for a ride. Once, she would have sent up a little spurt of flame from her fingers, just to get their attention. She took her ridiculous hat off, combed her fingers through her hair, and got some yuan out of the inner pocket of her overalls so they could be see .</p><p>A sato-taxi stopped, and she got in gratefully. "Taneka Mansion, please" she told the driver grandly. "I've had a long day, so don't ask."</p><p>An unmarked van was pulling away from her mansion when she arrived, but she paid no attention. She paid the driver, dashed up to the door, unlocked it and locked it quickly behind her.</p><p>"Ren?" She called. Her other son, Shunsuke, would be out at architecture club this evening.</p><p>The house was silent. She climbed the stairs, planning first a shower to compose her thoughts. She walked into her bedroom, and almost straight into Amon's chest. Her eyes were roughly at the level of the chin of his mask. She pulled back a fist and smashed it against his face, but he caught her wrist and she was, inexplicably, unable to move.</p><p>Well, she would go down defiant. "How the fuck did you even get in" she said. "I hired the best security firms to renovate this place."</p><p>"Your younger son" said Amon, surprising her with a calm answer. "Our observers found that he leaves the basement window unlocked, probably so that when he goes out to meet people he doesn't want you to know about, he can get in late without alerting you."</p><p>He released his grip on her, so they were just standing, face to face, and sounded almost sad. "I won't need to break into here again, though."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. If Only You Were a Little More Wise or a Little Less Clever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Amon talks to Yumi. Many men, really, just want to be listened to even if it's a really bad idea. Also Amon's take on his childhood is a bit understated.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I'll join you" she lied desperately.</p><p>He shook his masked head slowly. "You hate me only slightly less than you fear me."</p><p>"Well, yes, and with good reason. But some of the things you said back there on stage were true. Maybe Republic City politics do need reform. I could help you -"</p><p>The masked head tilted to one side. He put a hand out to touch her forehead and considered. "Interestingly, that's not entirely a pathetic lie".</p><p>"You can tell that? I know skilled earthbenders and waterbenders can - " Yumi realized she was babbling and worse. "Oh. It's not the police you're afraid of learning about you, is it."</p><p>Amon sighed. "If only you were a little more wise or a little less clever" he said regretfully.</p><p>"I can keep a secret" she promised. "I'll give up on revenge. It's nothing to me if you take down the bending government." She paused. "You actually don't want to start your revolution with murder, do you."</p><p>There was a long pause. Then, keeping his hand on her forehead, he carefully steered her to the bed and sat on the chair beside it. The hand was heavy and she thought... a skilled and ruthless waterbender could simply haemorrhage blood vessels in the brain. It wouldn't be difficult or messy, and it would look extremely natural. </p><p>He raised both his hands and pulled down his hood, then unclipped the mask and lay it on her bedside table. Underneath, his face was all long, aristocratic Water Tribe lines. Actually, he looked rather like Councilman Tarrlok would without a suntan, though it was a bit problematic to think all Water Tribe men looked alike. He also looked exhausted and sad. "No" he said. "I don't want to start murdering people yet. Let's talk. I'll see if I believe you afterwards."</p><p>He's trying to manipulate me into not hating him, thought Yumi. It's in my interest to at least convincingly pretend it's working. "So what made you choose the cause of nonbender rights?" she started sociably. "Being a waterbender - I'd guess a bloodbender - and all."</p><p>"My travels, mostly" he said. "I left home as a boy and traveled the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. Everywhere, nonbenders rely on benders to be good to them, to protect them from other benders. It's not fair. I tried to protect them at first, but there are so many, and I had to keep moving and leave them behind."</p><p>"So, you learned to take away people's bending."</p><p>"My father - who was quite an intense person, but well-informed - described the process in great detail to me. So I practiced on the thugs I fought. It was good to free the villages permanently from their worst bullies." He leaned back. "But it got more dangerous as stories started to spread. I had to stop picking off bad people randomly one by one when I found them, and change the world that made them. So I came to Republic City to start a revolution."</p><p>"Why me, though? I never bullied anyone."</p><p>Amon sighed. "You did enough to have enemies" he said. "You were a... demonstration. But I will agree, it wasn't fair."</p><p>I bet Varrick paid him, she thought. Classic Varrick to have his rivals forcibly debended by revolutionary madmen as an industrial competition strategy. "What's Leila's deal with the revolution?"</p><p>"Leila?" He blinked confusedly. "Oh. I'm not going to tell you anyone else's secrets. Mine are mine to take a risk on."</p><p>"Are you lying to her as well as to the people in the audience?"</p><p>He looked uncomfortable. "I'll tell her - and all the others - that I'm a bender once the revolution succeeds and we have an Equalist government. They can decide whether to keep me as leader, or choose untainted management. Any war ever won needed to use weapons that the leaders find distasteful."</p><p>"You'll never give up power if you get it" said Yumi. "I saw the way everyone in that room looked at you. Hero worship, faith in you as a leader. You can't just step back, say you were just a weapon all along."</p><p>"And if I don't give up power? There have been worse leaders" he said. "Avatar Flaming Aang lied as well when it suited him and he believed it was for a good cause. I went through the Great Divide a few years before I came to Republic City. The Zhangs and the Gan Jins abandoned their war for a few years because he told them their ancestors were brothers and their conflict started in a game. Of course they aren't idiots, their historians compared notes and he couldn't possibly have been telling the truth. Relations soured again after that, though they still sometimes bond over dislike of that lying Avatar."</p><p>"You don't seem to respect the Avatar much." Yumi was old enough to remember Avatar Aang as a public figure in the city. He'd seemed gentle, conciliatory, always unwilling to make hard decisions.</p><p>"My father wasn't a big fan" admitted Amon. "Probably my view on the Avatar is a little biased by that. But they have so much power, and they mainly use it to protect benders. It's why bloodbending is illegal, when any other sort of bending can be just as coercive if you use it that way. But bloodbending can beat even strong benders, even the Avatar, so they care about that."</p><p>"What will you do when Avatar Korra arrives in Republic City?"</p><p>He stared at her with those big eyes. "Just what I said on stage. See how she responds to our cause, how seriously she takes it. If she dismisses it... we start the revolution, and I will take her bending at the time it is most symbolically effective."</p><p>Yumi felt sorry for the poor girl, but an Avatar's problems were hardly hers. "The lying must be hard" she observed. Honestly, it was kind of endearing the way he was spilling his life history. This was not a man who had many confidants.</p><p>His expression of determination faded to bleakness. "I forget what the truth is sometimes" he admitted. "Forget my own name and face."</p><p>"So why did you leave home so early?" In Yumi's experience one could keep men talking for hours by asking them about their childhoods or school years. It was usually very boring for the listener, but in this case she'd endure it.</p><p>"I had a little brother" he said. "My father...  I loved him as all children do, but he was always hard, and more hard on my little brother when he was teaching us to bloodbend. One day I turned on my father to protect my brother. I asked my brother to run away with me - I'd look after him, we'd see the world, come back in a few years once father had started to miss us. But I saw my brother was more afraid of me than he was of my father, when he refused to go with me."</p><p>"You like people being afraid of you, though."</p><p>"It's useful now. It was unbearable then."</p><p>The tension in the room had lessened substantially. "Where are my manners?" Yumi wondered. "Would you like some tea?" Nobody ever murdered anyone after having tea with them.</p><p>Two hours later, the key turned on the outside of the front door. Yumi and Amon - Noatak - were sitting in the kitchen, down the hallway from the front door, with tea. "Would you like to meet my son Shunsuke?" She asked formally. "I mean.. again. More socially this time."</p><p>He leaned over the table and put a hand on her neck. "Tell me again that you won't say a word about me to anyone. Or come to chi-blocking again. Or talk to anyone connected to me."</p><p>Her emotions were a combination of fear, pity, and fascination, but she said soberly, "I'll tell nobody", and that seemed to satisfy him. He picked up the mask and headed purposefully to the basement. She just glimpsed him contort fluidly out of the window Ren left open, and vanish into the night.</p><p> </p><p>Shunsuke bustled into the kitchen. "Hi mum" he said "Did you have a good evening?"</p><p>"Um, just a quiet one at home, you know" replied Yumi.</p><p>"That outfit needs a wash" he observed accurately, and then, bless him, he told her all about the lecture at architecture club at great length.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Honestly, had trouble thinking in-canon Amon would let Yumi live. He's pretty... efficient.</p><p>On the other hand killing people is kind of a big deal in the Avatarverse, and Amon notably did not kill anyone in cold blood at any point.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Our Interactions So Far Make This Improbable</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Yumi Taneka needs a favour. And there's really only one group of people in Republic City who - debatably - owe her one.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I always meant this to be canon-compliant, so.... we're reaching the end of the line. I've realized I do have to add something on how Asami handles being suddenly boss of a bunch of disillusioned (or not) Equalists, though, so this might end up nine chapters. Asami doesn't look so perfect from an Equalist perspective.</p>
<p>Accelerated degradation testing is a thing, by the way. I'm kind of a technical writer in normal life, I didn't make it up because it sounds really kinky.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yumi trudged home from the Taneka factory, her head full of accelerated degradation testing regime designs, several months after her encounter with Amon. The telephones had to be robust, definitely enough to stand up to casual vandalism and attempted robbery. Especially when someone could just metalbend the money out of them, dammit. She'd like to think metalbenders were above petty robbery of city infrastructure, but it seemed unlikely. She'd have to make the money box out of either platinum or wood, and she'd been trying out different hardwoods.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>She walked into her mansion still thinking about it, and straight into her elder son Shunsuke, who was waving a sheet of paper and looking panicked. "It's Ren" he said. "He's been kidnapped by the Triads."<br/>
Yumi took the ransom demand from his hand and read it carefully. The nameless author wanted payment at the end of the week, to the tune of - "Shoot" she thought out loud. "I don't have access to that kind of money any more. They must think I'm still head of the company."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"What are we going to do, Mum? The police?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The note said, "We have our sources in the police. Go to them, and he dies". Yumi believed it. Her forehead creased. The ransom demand was the sort of money that Taneka Communication Industries could get together in time - just about, and at huge cost to the company's growth prospects. "You and Ren lived with my brother for eight years while I was... sick. Do you think he'd help us now?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Shunsuke looked a little dubious. "Uncle Aroku was kind enough to us when we lived with him" he said. "But that's a lot of money, isn't it?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi nodded. "Well. Let's go and ask him." They set off together on foot, since Aroku Taneka's townhouse was in the same quarter as the Taneka mansion he'd left his sister when he took over her company.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
  <p>***</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Yumi, Shunsuke" said Aroku genially once his housekeeper had shown them in. "What brings you here so late? Come in."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>They sat down in a formally decorated parlour, and Yumi explained the problem and showed him the note.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Aroku's forehead wrinkled almost exactly like his sister's. "That's too much money" he said. "It would destroy the company. We could borrow it but we'd have to cancel all new product development and lay off a lot of the research staff, and we'd be paying it back for decades."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I know" said Yumi. "But Ren's my son."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I think you should go to the police."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"The Triads have people in the police, to warn them about this sort of thing. The note says so. You know it's true."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He steepled his hands. "How about meeting them at the end of the week and offering them the money that you can scrape together?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"You know it would be insulting. They'd probably kill Ren rather than admitting they made a mistake, kidnapping the son of the ex-CEO and then asking for an impossible ransom. A matter of pride."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Aroku was evidently out of suggestions. The silence lengthened.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Uncle, you're a firebending master" said Shunsuke eagerly. "Some of our relatives and staff, too. If we go together - maybe we can fight whichever Triad it is and rescue Ren?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He looked extremely uncomfortable. "You say we" he said. "But really, we'd be leaving the nonbenders at home."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I'd go" responded Yumi instantly. "I can fight. I've even had a few lessons since... my time on Ember Island."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Aroku's expression was more and more distant. "It would be very dangerous" he said. "And Ren... we all know they didn't choose him because he's valuable. They chose him because he's an idiot and been running after a boy in the Triple Threats for the last four months, and so he's trivial to grab."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi probably should've known that, but she was not the sort of person to be slowed down by guilt over her lack of parenting engagement. "He's still my son" she said stubbornly. "A Taneka. He may have made some poor social choices recently-"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"He's a feckless cripple" said Aroku brutally. "I can't risk our company, and the jobs of our employees, for him."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Shunsuke looked devastated. Yumi hid her feelings, and rose to go.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I am sorry" Aroku added awkwardly, as they left.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"How dare he" Yumi told Shunsuke fiercely. "You're worth as much as any bender and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You're whole and a complete person like anyone else."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"That's not how you felt right after it happened, Mum". They'd never really talked about it since she came back. That suited Yumi, and probably he'd been afraid to trigger her mental collapse again.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Anyway now I'm a nonbender I do think nonbenders are equal to benders" she snarled. "I'll figure something out. Try not to worry. And - Aroku said it was the Triple Threats he was usually with. Who was the boyfriend? Are the kidnappers likely to be Threats?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I think they broke up last week" said Shunsuke. "Simplest option is, it's the Threats."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"OK" Yumi took a deep breath. "I know who we can ask for help".</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi waited outside the Sato factory at the morning shift change. She saw her former friend in the crowd a long way off, wearing a red hat. She tapped one of the workers going the same way, and said "Excuse me, could you give this note to Leila? The woman in the red hat?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The man stared at her blankly and looked into the crowd. "You mean Misa?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Er, yes" said Yumi. "Just... give her my message?" The man nodded and pushed through the throng purposefully.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi hung around, wondering whether to simply go home. Then Misa came bustling back out of the gate with the exiting night shift, took Yumi by the shoulder and steered her round a corner into an alley.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"You really shouldn't be here" hissed Misa. "Amon said you'd never talk to us, or about us, again but you'd be safe if we avoided you. If he finds out you're here -"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Did you read my note?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Misa looked at the carefully worded note, scrumpled in her hand. "Um, only the bit at the end with your name, then I came to find you. What's happened?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I really need to contact Amon. I need his help, urgently. Can you tell him? Misa nodded.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"And, er - are you ok? Did you get into any trouble?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The factory line manager and incompetent revolutionary sighed. "Nobody was happy that I let you follow me in. The Lieutenant especially. Amon - he's so calm it's hard to tell. We improved our security protocols though so maybe it was good really."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I'm glad to hear it. And look - I'll be at home for the next few days. The sooner I can talk to Amon, the better."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Misa nodded and headed back into the factory.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi had assumed that Misa would have to finish her shift before passing on the message. She had in fact decided which of her nightgowns suited her best, in hope of Amon turning up in her bedroom for a third time. She was therefore surprised by a knock on the front door mid-afternoon, and opened it to someone who appeared to be an elderly Water Tribe man, carrying a case, in nondescript clothes with hunched shoulders.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Good afternoon" said Amon. "May I come in?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Yes of course. Haven't you forgotten something though? Your mask?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He straightened up in her kitchen, rolling his broad shoulders thoughtfully and letting the wrinkles in his face relax. "One benefit of the mask is that I can go almost anywhere without it. If anyone asks - and I do mean anyone - I'm a plumber who came to fix your leaky tap."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Ah, right" she said uncertainly. "Um. I need your help. My son has been kidnapped by the Triads and you're my only hope of rescuing him."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He stared at her with what might have been a trace of amusement. "Seriously, I'm your best hope? Our interactions so far make this improbable."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"You did ruin our lives and take away our ability to fight back with firebending" pointed out Yumi. "It's only fair you help us out."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Amon's calculating eyes met hers for a long moment. "We have been planning a practice raid on one of the Triads" he admitted. "The plan would need to be altered only very slightly to make it a rescue mission. Tell me what you know about who has him, and give me a picture. We have our own sources as well that we'll check."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Triple Threats, probably. I don't know much else." Yumi pushed a picture of Ren across the table.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Amon folded it carefully, tucked it into his pocket and stood up. "We'll try to get him back safely to you. You know there are no guarantees in this sort of operation."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>She wanted to throw her arms around his broad chest and sob her thanks. Being tough for Shunsuke had been easy; being strong in front of Amon was much harder. She straightened her spine and nodded.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He grinned ironically. "Anything else I can do for you today, ma'am?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Well, now you mention it. My brother Aroku Taneka is an arsehole who thinks nonbenders have no value. You could pay him a visit. Get some debending practice in." </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The mask made him more intimidating by hiding how he raised his eyebrows when surprised, she thought. "Just so we're clear" he said mildly, "your objection to my methods holds only as long as you don't want them used on your personal enemies? And those personal enemies include your own brother?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi shrugged. "It's worth a try. Someone, probably Varrick, obviously sets you on people in exchange for his support. I'd owe you."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Amon's eyebrows nearly hit his forehead. "I make no promises there. But your son, I will try to rescue."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Yumi let him out, and sighed. The man might be a monster, but it really was a shame his followers - poor deluded Misa for one - couldn't see him maskless. They were missing out.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Brother and sister Equalists" said Amon to the small group, all fully masked in full, dark chi-blocker outfits with glowing goggles. "We've practiced our skills, but so far we have seldom had a chance to test them in battle. The day is still to come when we can let Republic City know our full power. But today we will show some of the worst benders, and rescue a brother - even if he does not yet know he is our brother."</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Misa, behind the heavy mask with its carefully designed airholes,  gasped with excitement and clenched her hand in the heavy electric glove. Soyi was stoic and lithe in front of her, armed with the glove and her own talents.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"We have intelligence suggesting that this group is a splinter of the Triple Threats" continued Amon. "A few young hotheads trying to make some money with what they consider an easy target. However, we should not underestimate them. They are mostly benders - fire, earth, maybe water - and will fight with particular desperation because they may not want to be discovered by their superiors either. They will almost certainly kill our young brother before releasing him".</p>
</div><div>
  <p>They passed the photo of a Fire Nation teenager between them, then loaded into unmarked satomobiles for a place just outside town.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"It's a junkyard" whispered Misa to Soyi.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Shhhh" hissed Soyi. They had the place surrounded. Amon, masked and uniformed, crept alone through the field of broken Cabbage Cars and other scrap. He carefully lifted a corner of a sheet of metal, then vanished into the ground.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Should we follow them?" Misa wondered.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>There was silence for a moment, and then people started to run out of the hole towards them. Soyi leapt like a panther, hitting them in the arms and legs and backs. Misa stuck out her gloved hand and touched one, and he dropped on the ground, twitching. Around them the other chi-blockers and gloved Equalists were taking down the fleeing Triad members.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Amon came out of the tunnel last, carrying a body over his shoulder. "Mission successful" he said, almost warmly. "Misa, can you drive me to drop this kid off at home before he wakes up. Then, party at headquarters."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Misa stayed silent until they'd dropped Ren Taneka outside the Taneka mansion. Amon - masked and, she could sense, elated - rang the doorbell and was back in the satomobile with fluid speed. "Drive" he ordered, but just round the corner he asked her to pull over in a dark alley, and lifted his mask enough to kiss her full on the lips in the darkness.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Mmmm" she said. "We saved Yumi Taneka's son?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Why not? He's a nonbender like us now" he said, and kissed her again, and took her into the back of the van to make her a happy woman.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>***</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Back at the Taneka mansion, Yumi fussed over her returned son, and wore her best nightdress every night. And one day a week later, news came to her that her brother had suffered a catastrophic breakdown, and she took control of Taneka Communication Industries, and kept her mouth shut even while Avatar Korra came to the city and the Equalist revolution rose and then, on the brink of victory, fell.</p>
</div><div class="yj6qo">
  <p> </p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Triumph of Asami Sato</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The revolution fails when Amon is unluckily exposed as a bender. Asami lays out her plans to keep the company solvent, though she may underestimate the extent of radical political beliefs in her workforce.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The day after the revolution failed and her life's purpose was ruined, Misa was late to work.</p>
<p>Not, ironically, because of the waves of despair and fear that swept over her continually, and the insistence of her mind on replaying the final hours when she'd felt hopeful and happy. She was late because she'd been throwing up violently in her apartment while the bells rang for her shift. </p>
<p>The day before, she'd been standing next to Soyi at the back of the arena, watching for intruders from outside. They'd been maskless, each wearing an Equalist badge proudly on their uniform, because the city was theirs now and the hiding was done. The first few days of Equality had been focused on drawing out and eliminating the resistance; it had been more brutal and less celebratory than Misa had imagined, but it had to be done if the change was to be made permanent and they were ever to be able to concentrate on good governance. And the benders were such arrogant fools, imagining he was really after them all; Lin Beifong, for example, had the opportunity to keep her bending and turned it down for some kind of symbolic refusal to cooperate. Amon had been busy removing the bending of criminals and those who attacked the revolution, but the Equalist leaders had scheduled a meeting after the rally to discuss longer term plans for running Republic City fairly.<br/>
<br/>
Far away on stage, there was a commotion; the Avatar appeared and made fantastic claims, and Misa saw Amon's face for the first time. Scarred, but not too bad, all things considered, definitely better than she'd expected. One of the airbenders got loose and the fight moved into the bowels of the building. "Should we do anything?" Misa asked Soyi.<br/>
"I think we'd better stay at our posts" Soyi replied grimly. "Amon and the Lieutenant can surely handle it. They're trusting us to stop any other incoming trouble."<br/>
Waiting in the silent, uncertain crowd was hard. Then they'd heard shouting outside, and been ideally situated watch as a figure was blasted from the building and tumbled into the sea. "It's him" said Misa, and they fought through the crowd towards the railing and the sea. "He's drowning! We have to rescue him!" Then the sea parted, and Amon rose, scarless and obviously bending on a pillar of water. The crowd gasped as one as the firebender kept blasting at Amon, and their leader dropped into the water and sped away.</p>
<p>There was total shocked silence, which went on for a long time. Then, the crowd started to trickle away quietly back into the city. Misa and Soyi stood side by side for several long minutes. "Fuck" said Soyi with disgust at last, ripping the Equalist badge off her jacket and throwing it onto the ground. "I was only marginally down for traumatising kids, even troublesome little shits like those airbenders. And now it turns out he was a fucking bender all along?"<br/>
"I'm sure there's an explanation" Misa tried weakly.<br/>
"I'm not hanging around to listen to it" said Soyi. "I have an escape bag packed in case everything went wrong, and I'm off to the Fire Nation. They know how to treat a good chi-blocker there, like a Kyoshi Warrior - "<br/>
"You always said you couldn't handle the makeup and stupid outfits every day" said Misa, irrelevantly and numbly. Soyi had hoped that after the revolution, pro-bending would be replaced by other sports open to nonbenders, one that everyone could at least try to play. Soyi had hoped to become a coach in the new equal world.<br/>
"Come with me, Misa" she said. "There's nothing but trouble for you here."<br/>
Misa shook her head. For various reasons, she could not leave Republic City and start a new life of adventure right now, even if she wanted to. She wished her friend well, and then spent some time walking the city, looking for Amon or the Lieutenant or Hiroshi but finding nobody. Then, not knowing what to do next, she went home and planned to go to work as usual the next day. It seemed like the only option.<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
"Misa!" her friend Haru hissed at the factory. "You're late! C'mon, Asami is going to give a speech and we don't want to miss it. Maybe keeping our heads down." Misa followed him down a side passage, until they came out behind the main hall, very close to the door to Hiroshi's office. The main hall was full of Future Industries workers, assembled and waiting for something. Haru and Misa crept out and lurked behind a large piece of machinery.<br/>
Hiroshi's office door opened. "And keep my father's appointment with the Pedestrian Safety League" came a soft voice, turned back into the office. "We need to make this "jay walking" a crime if we're to ensure everyone in the city needs a satomobile." It would only have been audible to the people behind her, and to Haru and Misa skulking nearby.<br/>
Then Asami Sato walked out onto the stage with a swish of raven hair. Her narrow hips were encased in a smart red skirt suit and her makeup was perfect, as usual. Her beautifully made up lips curved. Four metalbender police came out of the office to stand behind her.<br/>
"Good morning everyone" she said perkily. "Now, I know what you're thinking."<br/>
"Bet you don't" muttered Misa.<br/>
"I'm not even sure I know what I am thinking" whispered Haru.<br/>
"You're thinking, here's the boss's daughter" said Asami sweetly. Then her green eyes narrowed. "But you're wrong. I put my father in prison, and I'm the boss now."<br/>
The workers watched sullenly. "Now, I am aware that some of you probably know Equalists" Asami continued. "Maybe you even have a few Equalist sympathies."<br/>
"Ha" whispered Misa to Haru. "Who here doesn't?"<br/>
"I am here to tell you that is over" said Asami Sato. "The Equalists have been exposed as hypocrites and criminals. Every single thing they stood for was a lie. They attacked my friends! Benders who are a force for good in Republic City!"<br/>
She paused for applause, and got a perfunctory patter of it as the workers tried to avoid attracting her attention. Misa saw, for a moment, Asami Sato: a motherless child whose father didn't know how to express affection, who had found a new group of people who were cool and powerful but still needed her. Asami Sato wanted to be needed, so that she could be sure of not being rejected, and apparently being needed by people who had no special powers was not good enough for her. "The Equalist leaders are in prison, or will be shortly. And they will never see the light of day again. The city is already returning to normal."<br/>
"Now, Future Industries needs to move on from my father's disastrous, traitorous management" said Asami firmly. "We will of course continue to invest in the Satomobile line, our main cash cow. However I also expect to monetize the new weapons-focused expertise of the company."<br/>
A cautious silence from the floor. "We invite anyone who has information about Equalist sympathies among their colleagues to come forward. If you have worked for the Equalists but have valuable information about the weapons - no harm will come to you, if you share for the good of the company. If you know Equalists who work here - please do tell me about them. There will be a bonus of 30,000 yuan to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest of a senior revolutionary."<br/>
"Fuck" whispered Misa.<br/>
"You'd better go" confirmed Haru. "I'll probably get away with it, nobody notices me."<br/>
Asami continued, "We must wipe out this stain on our firm, and work extra hard to do it. But we are the best at what we do -"<br/>
"That's right" hissed Haru. "Partly because Hiroshi actually hired skilled engineers instead of people from fancy schools."<br/>
"- Despite the Equalist presence which corrupted us. My father was not the company. In any case, we will of course be using the technology developed under his administration to secure our competitive advantage and continue company growth. I hope to ensure no job losses result from recent company developments, and have reduced our sales targets for this year by 20% to reflect probable impact on our brand of recent events. Should we achieve the revised targets, end-of-year bonuses will be paid as usual."<br/>
"Fucking bender-lover" said Misa, then remembered why that was hypocritical. She slunk out the back door, giving up on two weeks of wages for her freedom.</p>
<p><br/>
When she got home, the police had been to her apartment, smashed down the door, and told her neighbour to report Misa's return.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This unsympathetic version of Asami is canon compliant. I did add her wanting to make jaywalking a crime, which was a thing car companies did in the 1920s to put the blame for accidents on pedestrians (disproportionately the poorer people).</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. A Fall Broken</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After Amon's death, Misa finds somewhere safe - if a little surprising.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Misa wandered sadly through the city, waves of nausea and despair running through her. It was drizzling with rain, and she had to keep moving or freeze. She had lost everything, and they had achieved nothing. </p><p> </p><p>A satomobile pulled up beside her, with an expensively dressed woman in the back. "Can I give you a lift?" asked Yumi Taneka. <br/>
"I don't have anywhere to go" said Misa. Possibly Yumi was going to take her to the police station. Maybe that was Misa's best option.<br/>
"Get in and come and have some tea, at least" said Yumi. <br/>
</p><p> </p><p>They went to Yumi's mansion, and into the kitchen. "You should know" said Yumi. "I've just come from a school board meeting, which is always a good place for gossip. You know fishermen saw an explosion out to sea a few days ago? The police investigated it. They found bodies. Amon, and Tarrlok."<br/>
"Oh" said Misa. "I mean - I'm sorry. I know you and Tarrlok -"<br/>
"It was just the one time with Tarrlok!" said Yumi hastily. "But - are you ok?"<br/>
Misa was shivering with cold and shock. There was a noise outside the door "Shunsuke?" Yumi called. Her eldest son stuck his head around the door. "Would you bring us some hot tea and blankets?" He complied.<br/>
</p><p>"I'm sorry, too" said Yumi. "Not that the revolution failed. But you and Amon were a thing, right? Were you going to marry him?"<br/>
"It wasn't that sort of thing" said Misa. "But - towards the end - we did get careless." She put a hand over her belly.<br/>
Yumi's eyes flew wide. "Oh. Oh. You're pregnant with Amon's-"<br/>
"Yeah" said Misa. "With a possible waterbender baby. Actually, a bloodbender baby, not that that makes much difference. They both oppress us, it's just bloodbenders can oppress and manipulate other benders as well."<br/>
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Shunsuke brought in tea and the blanket. Misa seized both. She thought she would never be warm again.<br/>
<br/>
"There's another bit of gossip" said Yumi. "The Council are considering disbanding. The support for the Equalists - even among people who disapproved of some of their methods, the rallies and such - showed clearly that the current governance of the city isn't working. They're talking about another way. It's called a .... selection? Everyone gets a 'vote' and they can vote for who they want to lead the city. They reckon benders need not even bother trying to be selected, there's no way this city would vote for a bender."<br/>
"Does it matter?" asked Misa dully.<br/>
"Well, I plan to vote for someone who won't always kiss the Avatar's arse" said Yumi bracingly. "And there will be a new selection every few years. It won't be perfect. We'll probably get some overcautious rich guy with a dignified face. But whoever wins will need to listen to the people, and a lot of the people sympathised with the Equalists."<br/>
There was another silence. <br/>
"He wasn't all bad" said Misa, determinedly. "Amon. He really did mean what he said about equality, and he didn't want to hurt people."<br/>
"He hurt me very badly" said Yumi. "But so did other people. And I'm ok now."<br/>
"He did terrify them, but that was partly an act to get change to happen". Misa sobbed suddenly. "And he lied to us, but there was a reason. Even Avatar Aang lied sometimes for a good cause." Yumi stood up, moved to the sofa next to Misa, and put an arm around her. Misa crumpled into her lap.<br/>
"He ran away and left you" said Yumi cruelly. "He went to find his brother, it seems, but not you."<br/>
"He didn't know about the pregnancy" wailed Misa. "Maybe he'd have come back for me if he'd known..."<br/>
"Ah, never rely on men" said Yumi. "The world lost two hot ones that day, though, if not good ones."<br/>
Shunsuke stuck his head around the door again. "Everything all right, Mum? Who is this?"<br/>
"This is - Leila" said Yumi. "I think she'll be staying with us for a while. She's - a refugee."<br/>
"Ah, welcome, Leila" he said with a trace of surprise, and wandered back to his pai sho theory work. <br/>
"You don't owe me anything" said Misa softly. <br/>
"No" said Yumi. “But I’m going to need help, support and good managers of engineers at Taneka Communications Industries as we expand. You can lie low here for as long as you need to, though I doubt they’ll put much effort into finding nonbender and noncombatant Equalists. Have the baby, we’ll get help that can deal with early-stage waterbenders and teach them properly. Then, I’ll need you back to work”.<br/>
<br/>
Misa brightened. “Can we try making a machine that does laundry?” she asked. “Amon – er – it’s an idea he had. I guess he just really thought laundry was unfair.”<br/>
"We can see if a design is feasible” said Yumi. “And Amon…  maybe some good can come out of this sad story, in the end. Did he ever tell you about his childhood, and why he had such feelings about bending even though he was a bender?"<br/>
"No" said Misa. "He told us as little as possible. He said it was for the best. I suppose we'll never find out now".<br/>
Yumi smiled. "I'm glad I found you" she said. "Let's start at the beginning: Noatak and Tarrlok were brothers...."<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
The End</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I suppose Yumi can go to Korra and ask for her bending back, shortly after these events. But surely Yumi’s character has developed so she’s no longer so obsessed with having physical power over other people…?</p><p>Of course not. Yumi totally asks for her bending back. </p><p>Then she and Misa invent the washing machine, and then the bicycle, and they raise a child together.</p><p>I have really enjoyed writing this. Comments welcome.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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